MINIREVIEW
T Lymphocyte Therapy of
Cancer
J. MICHÁLEK1-3, T. BÜCHLER3,4, R. HÁJEK3,4
1Department of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital of J.
G. Mendel, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, 2Cancer
Immunobiology Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical
Center, Dallas, U.S.A., 3Laboratory of Experimental
Hematology and Cell Immunotherapy, Department of Clinical
Hematology, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, 4Department
of Internal Medicine – Hematooncology, Masaryk University, Brno,
Czech Republic
Received June 27, 2003
Accepted December 15, 2003
Summary
The rationale for the use of T lymphocytes to fight cancer is
the immunogenicity of tumor cells. T cells are capable to
recognize and finally to kill tumor cells. Adoptive cell
transfer therapies provide the opportunity to overcome
tolerogenic mechanisms by enabling the selection and activation
of highly reactive T cell subpopulations and by manipulation of
the host environment into which the T cells are introduced. The
aim of this article is to review the possibilities, limitations
and recent clinical experience with this novel anticancer
treatment, namely with adoptive immunotherapy using
antigen-specific T cells.
Key words
T lymphocyte • Cancer • Therapy
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